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Nilanjan Dey

Kolkata , Nov. 7

THE recent bout of redemption notwithstanding, diversified equity funds launched this calendar year still have over Rs 15,000 crore under their management. The figure depicts this year's launches as among the most prolific schemes in terms of assets.

The heavyweights of 2005 include Franklin India Flexi Cap and SBI Magnum Multicap, each of which command well over Rs 2,000 crore. These are followed by Reliance Equity Opportunities and Prudential ICICI Infrastructure, with more than Rs 1,800 crore and Rs 1,400 crore respectively.

All of these, of course, have been topped by Fidelity Equity Fund, the largest scheme, with roughly Rs 2,500 crore.

The latest tally, claim fund circles, indicates investors' confidence in equities and may be viewed against the backdrop of an advancing stock market as well as the general decline of debt as a viable investment option. Supporting the willingness of the investor community is a number of high-decibel launches, including those pertaining to a few innovative products.

With three launches this year, SBI Mutual Fund has emerged as the most productive among fund houses. Besides Magnum Midcap (Rs 417 crore) and Magnum Multicap (Rs 2,101 crore), it spawned the innovative Magnum COMMA, which now manages Rs 933 crore.

These end-September figures are sourced from Value Research.

Players that have two launches to their credit are Tata Mutual Fund (Services Industries and Mid Cap), Principal PNB (Focussed Advantage and Junior Cap) and Sundaram (SMILE and Capex Opportunities).

Incidentally, the biggest asset management company, UTI MF, joined the fray after a fairly long time with its Dividend Yield Fund.

Sources point out that the past eight months have seen resurgence of players such as SBI MF and Standard Chartered MF. While the latter moved into the equity space (after staying dedicated for long to debt and debt alone), some of SBI MF's equity products shot into the limelight on the basis of good performance.

Fidelity too made its foray into the Indian market earlier this year with the launch of its maiden scheme. The 30 diversified equity funds launched in January this year collectively handle Rs 15,000 crore. In terms of size, there is a significant difference between heavyweights such as Franklin India Flexi Cap and Magnum Multicap and the smaller schemes. Among the latter are Canemerging Equities (Rs 15 crore), Chola Global Advantage (Rs 58 crore), LIC MF Opportunities (Rs 38 crore) and Sahara Wealth Plus (Rs 69 crore).

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